


Swapping Genres

by coalitiongirl



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, follows OUAT's timeline but throws every MCU timeline out the window, have fun!!!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 14:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19465699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coalitiongirl/pseuds/coalitiongirl
Summary: Pros to this being a world where superheroes have been openly roaming the planet for the past few years: Emma actually believed Henry when he’d told her about the curse. Cons to this being a world where superheroes have been openly roaming the planet for the past few years: they don’t know when tostop.Oh, yeah. And ReginahatesCaptain America.





	Swapping Genres

**Author's Note:**

  * For [timetravelmagic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/timetravelmagic/gifts).



> i truly.......do not know what this is.

Pros to this being a world where  _ superheroes _ have been openly roaming the planet for the past few years: Emma actually believed Henry when he’d told her about the curse.

Well, not right away. Billionaire playboy Tony Stark might have gotten up and announced  _ I am Iron Man  _ a few years back and  _ yeah _ there’d been that whole thing with an alien invasion of New York and…gods? and a whole lot of dramatics that Emma hadn’t followed very carefully, but there are limits to how much she can suspend belief.

Captain America getting frozen in ice for decades?  _ Fine _ . An isolated African country possessing technology centuries ahead of the rest of the world?  _ Whatever. _ Henry’s hot mom being a fairytale character? Now, that’s just swapping genres altogether. Everyone knows it.

And yeah, eventually she believes in the curse and breaks it with true love’s kiss and discovers that her parents are  _ her age  _ and Storybrooke is a whole lot more fucked up than she’d ever imagined. So the whole Avengers thing helps her adapt, kind of. That’s a good thing.

Cons to this being a world where superheroes have been openly roaming the planet for the past few years: they don’t know when to  _ stop _ . 

Regina assures them, in the terse day after the curse when she’s locked up and the town is calling for her head, that the Avengers are never going to find them here. “Storybrooke is out of genre,” she rasps, and her voice is hoarse and pained. There’s a wraith trying to kill her, and she is unsteady on her feet after its last attack. Emma keeps a hand on her elbow, steadying her, and she watches Regina with wary eyes. 

Regina has been downgraded (upgraded?  _ shut up _ ) to Henry’s hot-evil mom, but there had been a brief moment in the hospital– a flicker of humanity, of sheer and desperate love and concern for her son. It makes Emma’s stomach flutter and twist like Regina might have some layers there beyond Evil Queen. 

Like an onion.  _ Like an ogre _ , she amends, and listens to Regina assuring David and Mary Marg– Emma’s  _ parents _ – that the Avengers aren’t going to swoop in to fight the wraith. “We’re hidden from the outside world here. It’s magic, not…whatever nonsense science Stark and those other vigilantes use to keep themselves superpowered.” 

And no one comes to save Regina from the wraith (except Emma herself, because dammit, once she’d thought about Regina having layers, Regina shifts back to Henry’s hot-evil-maybe-salvagable mom in her head and Emma is suddenly desperate to keep her safe), but a few weeks later, Emma and Mary Margaret jump into a portal home and find a cheerful-looking Norse god standing next to David.

“Greetings!” he says. “We detected a surge of deadly power here, but I suppose I came a little too late.” He gestures at a tree where Regina is crouched over, looking very much like she’d just fought a hurricane. Thor smiles broadly at Emma. “I will leave you to care for your hero.”

_ Hero _ , he says, and Henry– already in Emma’s arms– sneaks a glance at his other mother with a sort of wonder in his eyes. “Yeah,” Emma manages. “We’ll look after her, thanks.” 

Regina doesn’t join them at the victory dinner, but Ruby wants to have a proper party tomorrow, anyway. Emma heads over to Regina’s after dinner. Mostly because she’d promised Thor to look after the Evil Queen, which is a sentence that she had never expected to cross her mind, actually. What the  _ hell  _ is her life.

That’s the first time that an Avenger shows up in town, which is weird, but okay, at least it’s the strange mythical alien one. Maybe he’s kind of a fairytale, too. 

Harder to explain is the time Iron Man arrives to fight Ruby on the full moon and has to be forcibly evicted for trespassing. Or when Hawkeye nearly fires an arrow through Tiny’s eye when he’s just kind of confused and frantic. And Emma  _ swears  _ that she’d wrestled with a redheaded woman outside of Gold’s house one night while he’d been doing something questionable inside, though she’d maybe gotten in half a punch before she’d been on the ground, half-conscious, and had passed out until morning.

She might’ve been drunk. Turns out that your ex admitting that he’s secretly Rumplestiltskin’s son really throws a wrench into your whole attempt at adult stability. But she’s pretty positive there had been an Avenger around, too.

The Avengers keep showing up, even though Storybrooke has everything  _ under control  _ and never asked for them. And– oh, yeah. One other con. Regina  _ hates  _ Captain America.

Like, really, really loathes him. Just one mention is enough for her eyes to narrow and her mood to drop. Henry has to stash all of his comic books at the loft now. 

It probably starts when she’s working with Cora, which–  _ layers _ , okay, but it had been an exceptionally ill-advised idea on her part. There’s a showdown at the pawn shop, Gold’s life on the line and Emma ready to throw down with Cora and Regina. Well, she tries reasoning with Regina first, and  _ somehow  _ that ends with Emma holding Regina in place with a dagger at her throat. 

“Come on, Regina,” Emma hisses into her ear. Regina’s hand has moved up instinctively, her body stiffening as she chokes (Emma isn’t  _ choking  _ her, and she’s seen enough fucked-up kids in foster care to know that there’s an instinctive reaction some trauma survivors have to being restrained. She wants to let her go suddenly, to attack  _ Cora _ , who deserves it, but this is the only way–). “You’re better than this.” 

And then, abruptly, someone grabs Emma by the shoulder and hurls her across the room. “Are you all right, ma’am?” asks America’s favorite boy scout, putting a solicitous hand on Regina’s arm. Emma skids to a halt across the pawn shop. 

Regina wrenches her arm away. “I’m the  _ bad guy _ , you idiot,” she snarls. “You’re supposed to be  _ stopping  _ me.” There’s a hint of desperation in her voice, beneath the disdain. Emma wonders if Regina wants to be stopped. 

Then she remembers Cora, who looks distinctly puzzled by this new arrival. And distracted. Very distracted. Captain America tilts his head and says, “Do you  _ want _ me to stop you?” and Emma hurtles across the room toward Cora, shoving her into a showcase while Regina snaps cutting remarks at Captain America.

_ Captain America _ . By the end, Emma’s pretty sure that Regina has managed to hurt Captain America’s feelings.

But he shows up again a few weeks later, along with all of the Avengers. Storybrooke is being consumed by the curse, thanks to the trigger that had been activated, and Emma misses the Avengers’ visit almost completely. She says, “Yeah, hey, it’s really under control,” to a dubious-looking woman who she’s pretty sure is the one who’d beaten her up when she’d been not-drunk that one time. “We have our people working on it.” She doesn’t know how else to say  _ Regina basically told me that she’s going to die to stop the trigger _ without maybe kind of getting emotional about it.

So Regina wants to redeem herself like this. Emma isn’t processing it very well, which is her general mode of being.

“Sheriff,” Captain America says patiently to her. “We’re professionals.” 

_ So are we _ , she thinks, but  _ whatever _ . If the Avengers want to waste their time fighting against a curse that only Regina can stop, they can keep flying around. Emma has to go protect her family.

_ Her family _ includes Regina, very abruptly, and before she can think it through, she’s helping Regina stop the trigger. And they  _ win _ , and Regina smiles at Emma and Emma smiles back, and  _ god _ , Regina is really beautiful when she’s happy. 

Then they realize that Henry is gone.

They find one last magic bean and board the Jolly Roger (unmanned and at the docks as though Captain Hook or some other  _ truly _ fictional character had been there, what a hilarious concept), and they’re just about to pitch into the portal when the ship abruptly stops moving.

“No,” Regina says, her fists clenching. But when they look up, Emma sees the now-familiar silhouette of the Falcon swooping above them. When they look down, Iron Man is holding the ship in place and Captain America is standing on the deck. 

“No,” Regina says again.

Captain America flashes them a smile. “You probably didn’t realize this, folks, but you were about to drop prow-first into an anomaly–” 

“Get out of our way,” Regina grits out, and  _ yep _ – an instant later, she’s hurling a fireball at Captain America. 

The portal is nearly closed by the time Regina and Gold manage to get past the superheroes to take them to Neverland. Still, they get there at last, and it’s  _ miserable  _ and heartbreaking but kind of peaceful in its own way. “At least there are no superheroes here,” Emma murmurs one night.

Her parents are asleep, Gold has disappeared, but Regina is lying on a bedroll next to her in silence. Her back is to Emma, but Emma’s pretty sure she’s awake. “Imagine Captain America trying to swoop in here and getting eviscerated by a Lost Boy,” Emma tries, and she hears a muffled snort.  _ Success _ . “You really hate Captain America, don’t you?” 

Regina scoffs, rolling over to look up at Emma. “I don’t like any of them,” she says. “Especially  _ that one _ . Punchy blonde do-gooder who shows up and thinks he can save the world,” which feels kind of like a hit that Emma chooses to ignore. Regina’s lip curls. “He throws a giant frisbee and flashes a few aww-shucks smiles and we’re meant to…what? Idolize him? Buy his merchandise?”

“It’s the patriotic thing to do, or something.” Emma shrugs. “They used to make me watch those stock videos of him whenever I was caught shoplifting or skipping class. He told me he wasn’t angry, just disappointed. Really packed a punch.” 

They both huff out a little kind-of laugh. It’s the first time either of them has laughed since Henry had disappeared, and it feels awful. Emma doesn’t want to laugh when Henry is gone. Regina slumps, the same despair on her face, and Emma slides off the log where she’s sitting to lay a hand on Regina’s side.

She doesn’t know why she does it. It just feels like the right thing to do. And Regina slips her hand into Emma’s and holds it, and then, for the first time since they’ve reached Neverland, Emma feels very warm.

They save Henry– Regina saves Henry, and Emma and Regina embrace him together in a three-way hug. Emma could get used to those, to being part of a  _ family unit _ , and she can’t stop staring at Regina as they head home, at the soft smile on her face and the way she holds Henry.

Within a day, they’re back on course for utter destruction, and their fragile family unit falls apart in a flash. “I have to say goodbye to the thing I love most,” Regina murmurs, and then there’s  _ my gift to you _ and standing at the town line with a curse careening toward them, Regina holding Emma’s hand and Emma’s heart feeling as though it might shatter.

Soon, she’s driving through the long, winding Maine roads, feeling oddly as though she’s left something behind at the last rest stop (she keeps looking at the seat beside her to check that Henry’s still there, but he is, same as he’s been since the day that she’d birthed him). There’s a sudden jolt, and a large jet passes dangerously close to them. 

And then, Captain America is there. Emma blinks.  _ Captain America _ , on a quiet Maine road. There’s a red-haired girl beside him, looking frail and bewildered at their location, and Emma stops her car and steps out. “Uh…can I help you with anything…Captain?” 

Captain America blinks and shakes his head. “I’m not quite sure why I’m here,” he admits. “Did we detect…?” He turns to look at the Falcon– the  _ Falcon  _ is here, swooping down for a landing and looking just as perturbed as Captain America. 

“I don’t think so,” the Falcon says, brow furrowing. 

The red-haired girl cries out, her hands pressing against her head in agony as she stares wildly at the route behind Emma. Emma says, “Look, I don’t want to be rude, but would you mind moving your jet a little so I can keep moving?” 

She doesn’t realize what had happened until she’s driving back home to Storybrooke a full year later, her memories intact. Regina is sitting beside her, fingers clenched against her knees as she sneaks glances back at Henry.

There had been only one vial of the potion that had returned Emma’s memories. Emma can’t imagine the willpower it must have taken for Regina to give it to Emma instead of Henry. And Henry blinks at Regina now as though she must be a stranger. 

“We’ll figure it out,” Emma murmurs when Henry falls asleep. “It won’t be long.”

But first, they have a new villain to fight. The Wicked Witch of the West is in town, claiming that she’s Regina’s sister, and she  _ really  _ pisses Emma off. Mostly because she throws Regina into a  _ car _ . 

She really should have expected Captain America to make an appearance after that. The Falcon is with him again, as is the Winter Soldier. Emma blinks at the latter. There is something very familiar about him, though she can’t place it.

The Wicked Witch– Zelena,  _ right _ – laughs. “This is your backup?” she ridicules. “Some sort of court jester?” 

Captain America looks offended. “I’m Captain America.”

“Oh, a sailor. Even worse.” She hurls a wave of green electricity at Regina, and Regina deflects it. Then she hurls  _ Regina _ into the clock tower.

Emma is running for the library before she can think it through, racing up the stairs to the clock tower with her heart in her throat. Captain America and his friends are already there, and the Winter Soldier crouches over Regina to appraise her condition. “She hasn’t even broken a rib,” he says, eyes narrowing.

Regina blinks at him, a little woozy. “Jeffer– oh,  _ fuck  _ no,” she grits out, shoving him back.

Emma rushes to her, slipping an arm around her to support her. Her eyes dart desperately over Regina, searching for any sign of mortal injury. But Regina only groans a little like she’s sore and leans against Emma’s shoulder. “Why do you people keep showing up?” she demands, glowering at Captain America. “Can’t you leave us alone?” 

Captain America shakes his head. “This town is a Class A Hazard,” he informs them. “For some reason, your ordinary little idyll seems to attract all kinds of threats. The Avengers keep a constant presence here.” 

“We’re  _ fine _ ,” Regina hisses. “As the mayor of this town, I insist that you  _ leave _ .” 

Captain America’s smile turns fond, as though Regina is politely rebuffing his advances instead of ordering him out of Storybrooke. After Emma tumbles into the past and meets Regina as the Evil Queen, she wonders idly if Captain America would take Regina more seriously if he’d see her like this.

Then again, Emma’s only reaction to the Evil Queen is an embarrassing crush that means she can barely look Regina in the eye when they’re fighting the Snow Queen. They’re disjointed lately, squabbling over little things and uncovering deeper hurts, and they drift apart in a painful way that Emma doesn’t like to think about. 

“You need to work it out,” Elsa observes. They’re hanging out at the edge of the woods, monitoring the Snow Queen and pretending that they aren’t watching Regina and Marian sitting outside the vault instead. (Because– oh, yeah, Emma had brought one of the Evil Queen’s victims back from the past and now Marian and Regina are best friends?? Emma had thought that position was  _ taken  _ but apparently  _ not _ .) “You two need each other.” 

“You really should talk it out,” agrees a voice from beside them, and Elsa leaps up, a hand outstretched and her eyes alarmed. Emma, who is used to this by now, just closes her eyes in resignation.

A very, very tiny Avenger is perched on a rock between him, a trail of ants surrounding him. “You and Regina have something special,” Ant-Man says wisely. “We’ve all seen it. If you let her go, it’ll be the worst mistake of your life.” He squints at Elsa. “Hey, new girl, do you do Frozen birthday parties, too, or is this some weird cosplay thing?” 

Elsa looks deeply offended. 

The Avengers are no help against the Snow Queen, of course, though Iron Man and Captain America get caught in the Curse of the Shattered Sight for a while. They don’t seem to realize what had happened once it’s over, or that it had been yet another instance of Storybrooke saving itself just fine. 

And Regina and Emma kind of work things out, which is  _ great _ . Better than great, actually. Nothing really brings them together like having to clean up an Avenger’s mess. “Hey, uh, sorry,” the kid says, nodding rapidly at Emma from behind another masked suit. “Mr. Stark said that this town was a good training ground. I thought you were an intruder.” 

Emma glares at him from the webbing she’s encased in, suspended from the tree outside Regina’s window. “I’m the  _ sheriff _ .” Spider-Man cocks his head as though he doesn’t believe her. “I thought I saw someone in Regina’s backyard! Which I  _ did _ , apparently!” 

She’s rescued from her sputtering by Regina, who pokes her head out the window and laughs for only thirty seconds straight before she scolds Spider-Man and orders him off the premises. He bounds away, leaving Emma up in the tree, and Regina says, amusement glinting in her eyes, “Goodnight, Emma.” 

“Regina!” Emma says pleadingly, and Regina disappears from the window.

But she emerges from the house (a good twenty minutes later, what had she been  _ doing _ ) and flicks her wrist, and Emma is lowered gently from her position in the tree. They stare at each other for a long moment, and then they’re hugging, wrapped tightly in each other’s embrace, and everything feels a little bit better.

And things  _ are  _ better. They experience an unexpected lull in fairytale activity over the next few weeks. The Hulk winds up getting loose and terrorizing Main Street instead, but they can handle  _ him _ , a fact that Captain America doesn’t seem to comprehend when he charges in to save the day. 

“Stand back, ladies!” he says, throwing out an arm as though Emma and Regina aren’t poised with  _ actual magic lightning  _ blasting from their hands. “We have this under control!” 

They don’t. The Hulk destroys six shops on Main Street and pummels Iron Man into a bloody heap before Regina finally traps him in a magic stasis and orders all of them out of her town,  _ again _ . At least Stark Industries agrees to pay for the damage inflicted on Storybrooke.

Pepper Potts, Emma discovers, is the sole Avengers-adjacent person whom Regina seems to genuinely  _ like _ . She’s efficient and equally exhausted by Avengers shenanigans, and she doesn’t come to visit. Which is Regina’s main qualification for favorite Avenger. 

“You know,” she says one day at lunch, the two of them eating together in the mayoral office. “I got in touch with King T’Challa of Wakanda a few weeks ago,” she says. “I asked him how he did it.” 

“Did what? Made that badass armor, because I’ve been thinking that really, every good savior deserves a suit–” Emma doesn’t have  _ suit envy _ , that’s ridiculous, but like. Imagine what she could do with a suit. Maybe a flying one. War Machine had done circles around her when that ogre had stumbled into town last week. 

“Kept the Avengers out of Wakanda,” Regina says, narrowing her eyes at Emma. “Are you even listening?” 

“Yep. Listening. Not thinking about suits.” Emma offers Regina a root beer. “So what did he say?” 

Regina sighs. “He said that once they find you, they never leave.” 

“Great.” 

And  _ he’s  _ one to talk, because his little sister appears in town a week later. “Is this Storybrooke?” Shuri asks, squinting around. “I don’t see what the fuss is all about.” She’s accompanied by a number of Dora Milaje, each of whom looks just as unimpressed by Storybrooke. “I guess I’ve never seen this many white people before,” she finally concedes, squinting around Main Street. “It’s like  _ Friends _ .” 

They wind up staying for a week. Henry follows them around  _ everywhere, _ and Emma’s fine with the…puppy love, crush, whatever has been happening with Henry around Shuri right up until Henry reaches across the table at dinner one evening and accidentally blasts a hole into the chair next to Regina.

_ Blaster hands _ . Shuri had designed  _ blaster hands  _ for Henry. Regina jerks her head and Henry removes them, shamefaced. And that’s the end of Storybrooke’s short-lived tourism industry.

It’s almost a relief when Ursula and Cruella De Vil arrive in town. “Finally, some good old-fashioned fairytale villains,” Emma sighs with relief. Regina gives her a reproachful look. “Reformed villains,” Emma amends. Not that she believes that. But Regina desperately  _ wants  _ to, right up until she decides to go undercover to find out what they’re up to.

Emma isn’t there when Captain America screws it up, but she hears about it after the fact. He’d just  _ appeared  _ when Regina, Maleficent, and their two newest villains had wrecked a car, and he’d proceeded to give Regina a lecture about responsible partying. 

“Did he tell you he wasn’t angry, just disappointed?” Henry wants to know. “My teacher always plays that one for us.” 

“I thought I banned those from our school system,” Regina says, and she looks on the verge of actually turning to villainy. “You know, my curse was supposed to take us all somewhere horrible, but if I’d known exactly  _ how  _ horrible it would be, I might have reconsidered. No one deserves Captain America.” She reconsiders. “Well, your mother, maybe, but no one  _ else _ .” 

“Thanks,” Emma says wryly. Mary Margaret  _ adores _ Captain America. She’s been baking him cookies whenever he drops by. Or maybe that’s been David, whose hero-worship is verging on outright crush at this point. “Did you manage to lose him?” 

“I threw a few fireballs,” Regina says grumpily. “He didn’t even notice. But Mal still thinks I’m on her side because of them.” 

Emma grips Regina’s shoulder. Regina pauses, turning to face Emma. They’re standing close together, enough that Emma’s heart skips a beat, and she manages, “Just be careful, Regina.” 

There’s this other  _ thing _ , as present as the Avengers, that Emma doesn’t like to think about too much. That way leads to heartbreak and losing the best thing that’s ever happened to Emma, after Henry. “I mean, if she’d said something even  _ once _ , anything that might’ve implied that she thinks of me as more than a friend, then maybe I’d–” she says aloud, pacing back and forth. She’s in the woods, keeping an eye out for Regina and talking to herself.

Astonishingly, one of the trees answers. “I am Groot,” it offers. 

Emma has spent too much time in a superhero-infested fairytale town to flinch at that. “Right, like  _ friends _ . Or family. It’s not like she’s in love with me.” 

The tree twitches its branches. “I am Groot,” it challenges. 

Emma scoffs. “We’re not like that. We’re good the way we are. It’s enough.” 

“I am Groot,” the tree says, and Emma tosses it a scowl. 

“You know what? I didn’t ask you. I’m just…here, minding my own business, trying to keep an eye on– oh, Ursula,” she says, spotting her through the trees.

Ursula is making her way down to the beach, tentacles slipping out threateningly. Spider-Man swings through the trees behind her. Emma decides that, just this once, she’ll leave this one to the Avengers.

Zelena is bemused when she appears back in town, returned from faking her own death and running off to New York. “Those Avengers really are still at it, hm?” she says dubiously.

Marian lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Just don’t mention Captain America to Regina,” she says.

Naturally, Zelena finds every reason to mention Captain America in Regina’s earshot from then on. “I hope Captain America can help save us from the Author’s plans,” she says dreamily. “He’s my favorite superhero.” 

“Oh, mine, too!” Mary Margaret says enthusiastically. Regina looks mildly flamey. Emma puts a hand on her hand before she can start throwing fireballs. 

“If the Author completes his plans, you’ll be written into another existence,” a voice says from behind them. “One you may never escape from.” 

Dr. Strange. Emma eyes him warily. “You offering to help?” 

Dr. Strange laughs. “Fuck no,” he says. “You’re just fascinating to watch.” 

_ Dick _ . 

But they make it through, and Emma has learned to cherish the alternate worlds they wind up visiting. It isn’t often that they don’t have Avengers breaking into their houses or making grim pronunciations about their future. The closest the Avengers have ever been to  _ helpful _ had been that time that Regina had had a mild ant infestation in her kitchen and Ant-Man had coaxed them out.

“You’d be a great exterminator,” Henry had told Ant-Man. 

“Thanks,” he says. “I’m actually an engineer.” None of them had really known what to say to that.

_ Anyway _ . The Author had sent them to an alternate universe where Emma had been locked up for years and Regina had been a bandit, and it had been Henry who had saved them. He’d put Shuri’s blasters on his hands again and had threatened the Author into pointing him toward his mothers, and then–

And then Henry’s the Author, and there’s a massive cloud of darkness covering the town as it searches for a new Dark One.

And Emma  _ really  _ wishes that the fucking Avengers would show up  _ now _ , would help out in the way that they seem to help every other hapless group of non-superheroes, but instead, there’s nothing. There’s no one to save them, no one to bail them out of this new hell that’s looming around them, and Regina’s soul is being sucked out of her body in front of Emma’s eyes.

Emma screams, her throat raw and her heart pounding, and she can’t– she  _ can’t  _ lose Regina, Regina who is her best friend, Regina who is her family, Regina whom she  _ loves _ – 

She’s running forward before she can think it through, raising the Dark One’s dagger in a challenge to the darkness, and it swallows her whole.

When she wakes up, she is different.

So is Storybrooke. Everything has changed in the weeks since she’d been swallowed by the darkness, and the world feels…grimmer, doomed in a way that it never has before. “Hello,” says a man standing opposite her, flashing her a grin. “Nice to finally be here. I’m Loki.”

And that’s the oddest thing about being the Dark One, after the hair (the hair is  _ really  _ bad, and she knows that she’s a terrible excuse for a Dark One when her first thought is of what Regina’s going to think of her hair). There are suddenly  _ supervillains  _ in town.

And they all seem to think that she’s going to be on their side. “It’s what’s best for this world,” rumbles a large, hulking  _ thing _ that goes as Thanos. “We must put the greater good first.” 

Loki tosses Thanos a dubious look, and Emma decides that she’s better off on her own. 

Being the Dark One comes with a very unstable moral compass, she discovers. It’s not that she’s  _ evil _ . She just cares a whole lot less. So maybe she wreaks a little havoc on the town she’s dedicated years to saving, makes her mother cry and terrorizes Zelena a tiny bit.

Then she heads for Regina’s house, because they have  _ unfinished business _ . And Emma is finally bold enough to chase after what it is that she wants.

Regina opens the door for her, and her eyes get wet and soft when she sees Emma. Then she seems to take in the leather and the hair and the way that Emma leans against the pillar, loose-limbed and challenging. Her face stiffens. “I am entertaining,” she says tersely. “You can’t be here. They’ll– you don’t want to start up with them–” 

Emma teleports into the house, eyes narrowed. “Who?” she demands, and freezes when she sees the woman standing in the foyer. She’s blonde and muscular and looks a little bit like Emma, and she eyes Emma up and down as though she knows exactly who Emma is. Emma’s heart stops. “Do you…do you have a  _ girlfriend _ ?” 

“Wife,” another woman corrects her, sliding out smoothly into the foyer. Emma exhales. A girl follows them, eyeing Emma curiously. “You must be Emma. Regina has told Carol and me all about you.” 

“Did you think I would move on like that?” Regina murmurs. She sounds lost, and Emma turns to face her. 

“I didn’t– I didn’t know there was anything to move on from,” she says, and it’s the spiteful side of the Dark One that has her saying it. “We weren’t anything in the first place.” Regina flinches. 

The first woman– Carol, is this  _ Captain Marvel? _ – says, “Watch yourself. She’s been  _ mourning _ you.” 

“She isn’t herself,” Regina says, her voice tight.

“I’m more myself than I’ve ever been,” Emma shoots out. “You…what? I left so you decided to go play nice with the Avengers?” She glares at Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel has been her favorite of the Avengers since _forever_ , except for maybe the illustrious and very punchy Peggy Carter, but the Dark One is aflame with jealousy right now. “Have them over for dinner?” To her disbelief, she spots a cat wandering beside the little girl as though it belongs here, too. She picks it up, staring at its impassive face. “Adopt their _pets_ –?” 

Something erupts out of the cat’s face, and Emma screams and flails as it tries to  _ eat her face _ – Regina is crying out her name and Emma is going to  _ die _ , and the Dark One is silent and desperate for Regina and all Emma can do is cry out, “I didn’t mean it, Regina– I’m sorry– I’m sorry–” 

Then she finally manages to teleport away to nurse her wounds and sulk for a long time. 

Regina looks for her after that. She knows it because all the Avengers seem to have banded together, for the first time, to do what Regina  _ wants _ . “The lovely mayor only wishes to help you,” Thor says, sitting opposite her in her new evil lair. Okay, fine, it’s just the sheriff’s station, and Emma has locked it up for her own definitely-evil purposes. Regina has sent her a notice and a fine for appropriating public property, and Emma had torn it up. Because  _ evil _ . “You know how she cares for you.” 

Emma much prefers Valkyrie, who sits down as soon as Thor’s gone and offers her a drink. Then another. Then a third, because Valkyrie is a  _ gift _ .

It’s not that she’s hiding from Regina, which she tells the fly buzzing around her later that day. “I’m the Dark One now. It means that I’m not safe to be around. I get mean.” Her eyes narrow. “Okay, I  _ know  _ that you’re not a fly, and I’m–” She fires a few bolts of electricity at the Wasp– it’s got to be the Wasp, Ant-Man isn’t nearly as good at keeping his mouth shut– and the Wasp dodges every one. Her desk and the evidence locker aren’t so lucky, and she yelps and tries to put out the fires. “See?” 

“She doesn’t care about the Dark One,” Maria Hill informs her the next day. “She just wants to make sure you’re okay.” 

Emma sits up from the cot where she’d been trying to nap. As it turns out, Dark Ones don’t sleep. “How did you get in here? Are you even a superhero?” 

Maria shrugs. “Just an invested observer.” Her phone buzzes, and she hits a button on her headset. “Yes?” A pause. Emma lies back down, rolling over to ignore her determinedly. “Mifflin?” Maria repeats, and Emma sits bolt upright.

Turns out, Regina and Emma suddenly becoming the Avengers’ favorite project has also made Regina’s house their enemies’ favorite target, and there’s an alien invasion.  _ Now _ . In front of Regina’s house. 

The Avengers are all there, arrayed in front of the house while Regina snaps, “It’s under control, can you back  _ down _ –” while she sends waves of magic into the crowd of aliens. Mary Margaret and Marian are there with their bows, David is cutting down aliens as they charge forward, and Zelena is laughing wildly as she wipes out swathes of them. 

“I love your antics,” Captain America booms, smiling graciously at Regina. “But I think it’s time that you leave the battles to us.” 

And Emma, unleashed as the Dark One and yet to do something evil, storms over to Captain America and punches him in the face. 

Turns out that when you’re the Dark One and you have magic behind your fists, you can take on even the most ‘roided up superhero out there. “Did you just…” Mary Margaret breathes. “Did you just break Captain America’s nose?” She looks a little faint.

“You really are evil,” Zelena says gleefully. 

And Regina…Regina swings Emma around to face her and kisses her, right then and there. Emma kisses her back happily, layers and layers of magic erupting from them until the aliens have all disappeared, until the Dark One feels excised from her skin and she can breathe again, until Regina is beaming at her with eyes full of adoration. “True love’s kiss, huh?” Emma can only think to say, grinning stupidly.

Regina exhales, stroking Emma’s cheek. “It’s about damn time,” she murmurs, and she leans in to kiss Emma again.

“It  _ really  _ is,” Captain America says, and he’s smiling magnanimously at them, even past the bloody, broken nose. “I’m a sucker for a good love story, and yours is one of the best I’ve seen.” 

Regina does not smile back. “Get out of my town,” she says darkly, and Captain America winks and offers Emma a thumbs-up, wandering off in the direction of Granny’s diner.

On Tuesdays, she does a Superhero Special.

**Author's Note:**

> Watch Ant-Man pals!!!!!!!!!


End file.
